Do you remember the “Easy Button?” Serval years ago, a business promoted its ability to fill your needs by talking about how using them is having an easy button.
I love the “Easy Button.” I wish that every time I had a job to do or faced a difficult task I could just hit an easy button and everything would magically get better. Unfortunately life does not work that way.
In 425 B.C. any businessman could have sold many such “Easy Buttons” to the Jews living in Jerusalem. In those days Cyrus of Persia allowed Nehemiah to return to Israel to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. As the Jewish people began to rebuild the walls, the nations around them began to threaten them. Fearing attack, they could have made the threat go away by simply quitting the great work. Instead they chose something else. They chose to fight through the threats. The Bible tells us, “Those who carried materials did their work with one hand.” (Nehemiah 4:17a) Why would they work with only one hand? The Bible gives us the answer. They worked with one hand and “held a weapon in the other.” (4:17b)
They did what they had to do to get done what had to be done.
Anytime you start to do something great you will always find people who will try to stop you. The reasons vary from jealousy to who knows what. Great workers know they have to overcome great obstacles. It was true in 425 BC and it is still true today.
If you are not struggling in your work, then you are not challenging yourself. For true greatness there is no “easy button.”
~Lonnie Davis